New Reviews

I'm a cereal reader.

I was introduced to this term by my LSAT tutor.  It means a person who can't sit still long enough to even eat a bowl of cereal, without some sort of external stimulus.  So I'll read the cereal box, carton of milk, whatever is within reach.

Lately I've been feeding Nathan a lot, an activity which entails sitting there with nothing to do and both hands full for 15-20 minutes (including burping).  My solution: watch TV.  I've already made it through the first five seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation, plus caught up on several new shows which deserve mentioning.

Terminator: Sarah Conner Chronicles: Thumbs Up

I only started watching this show because it stars Summer Glau, who starred in a Joss Whedon show.  The fact that she's hot doesn't hurt, of course.  I've never been a huge fan of the Terminator franchise but I am looking forward to the new movie.  The show isn't great art, but it's well done and compelling enough to keep me watching.  Recommended for anyone who would be entertained by action scenes with guns and robots and a little bit of a plot to tie it all together.

Dollhouse: Two Thumbs Up

Another show that I would have never started watching had it not been for Joss Whedon.  Actually, I wasn't going to watch it anyway.  Joss Whedon is fantastically creative, and even if his dialog gets predictable after a while, and everyone talks the same, it's still fun.  But this show has one giant failing, one which it can never remedy:

It's not Firefly.

The truth is all we really want is Firefly back, not as a one-time movie but every week.  We'd gladly trade all the Buffies and Angels and Dollhouses to get back our plucky band of space cowboys.  But that won't happen, so we do the next best thing, and shove his new, non-Firefly morsels down our bitter throats.

Actually Dollhouse is pretty good.  I started watching because both my sisters highly recommended it, and they don't usually go in for action shows.  And this show has plenty of action.  And hot girls.  Seriously, how could the network execs ever say no to Whedon?  It's not like he hasn't found the magical perfect formula for quality TV entertainment.  Sigh.

The premise of Dollhouse is a corporation that uses people with blank minds.  These "Dolls" can be imprinted with any mind you want, giving you a psychologist, a special agent, or just a plucky girl who wants to spend the weekend river rafting and having forest sex with you.  Of course, the corporation is evil and there's a subplot that gets more and more interesting every week.  And there's action.  And hot girls.

Bottom line: it's typical Whedon fare: neat plots, fun dialog, action, and hot girls.  Not high drama, but definitely fun!

Life: Two Thumbs Up

The premise of this show is one of the more creative and unique I've ever seen.  A cop is framed for murder, convicted, and spends 10 years in prison before he's exonerated.  Of course, a cop in prison is hated by the inmates AND the guards.  How did he cope?  By learning zen.  When he gets out (with a fat settlement from the LAPD), he rejoins the force as a detective.  Now he's a cool detective with a hot partner and a sweet car in Los Angeles, but he still carries his zen around with him.  There's the usual weekly murder mystery, plus the larger subplot of how he was framed, why, etc.

The acting in this show is above par, the plot is great, the dialogue is crisp and fun and the production values are high.  Two thumbs up because my mother in law is really into it too.

Kings: Thumbs Up

Shakespeare said all the world's a stage, but the flip side of that is that the stage is the world only if you're willing to buy what they're selling.  Kings is by far the most creative and exciting premise for a new show that I've ever heard of, but it's so far out there that it would be very, very easy for such a show to stumble and fall.  It doesn't.

The premise is, well, Kings.  I and II Kings.  The bible.  Old Testament.  King David.  But as if that weren't enough, they take the story and transplant it to the modern day.  But of course it's an alternate reality where a modern, capitalist, western society is ruled by a king and anointed by a preacher.  And the enemy has heavy-armor tanks that say "GOLIATH" on them in big letters.  (Guess who destroys a Goliath tank in the pilot episode?)

The truth is Samuel and Kings were always my favorite books from the entire bible (with Deuteronomy being a close second).  I've thought for years that there is so much drama and action in those books, it's a wonder it hasn't been tapped by Hollywood yet.  And shifting the story to a modern day alternate reality may be a conceit, but it's one that works on multiple levels.  First, the hybrid of modern and archaic is very fun; the king has a scribe who follows him around, writing down history on a tablet PC.  Second, I think historical movies and TV shows too often get distracted by the fact that things seem different.  King David and Samuel the Prophet didn't speak in archaic King James style "thee's" and "thou's."  They spoke in a language that they considered modern.  And when David slew Goliath, he did so with military technology that he considered modern.  (Indeed, the story of David & Goliath could be seen as a story of the triumph of technology.)  This is something that gets lost when you see people wearing robes.

But put the story where it belongs--in a context that feels modern--and I think you regain some of the original feeling.  This isn't ancient history, this is something that happened.  It works on several levels, and in order to appreciate that you have to think.  And a TV show that makes you think is a welcome find.

I only started watching this show because I read glowing reviews in both the SF Chronicle and Time Magazine.  I am happy to say that those positive reviews were well deserved.  A show like this is highly subjective; for people who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they like. And I love it.